Vineyard Wind selected to move Mass. forward on offshore energy

Wednesday

BOSTON - Vineyard Wind, a project backed by a Danish fund management company, was chosen Wednesday by Massachusetts electric companies to build an 800-megawatt offshore wind farm off the southern coast of Martha's Vineyard, potentially fulfilling the state's long-dreamed goal of adding offshore wind power to its energy mix.

The project beat two other competitors for the contract authorized under a 2016 renewable energy law that called for the procurement of major hydroelectric and offshore wind resources to help reduce the state's carbon footprint and deliver clean, cost effective energy to the region.

One of the other bidders – Deepwater Wind – missed out on the Massachusetts contract, but was chosen by Rhode Island on Wednesday to enter contract negotiations to build a separate 400 megawatt wind farm in the same area.

Vineyard Wind has proposed to build its wind farm in waters 14 miles off the southern coast of Martha's Vineyard. The selection is contingent upon successful negotiations of a contract with Vineyard Wind, which is backed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables.

Current plans call for construction of Vineyard Wind's project to begin in 2019 with as many as 100 turbines, each spaced spaced at least eight-tenths of a mile apart, becoming operational by 2021.

Vineyard Wind beat out competing proposals from Deepwater Wind and Bay State Wind. The project selection team included officials from the Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil, with oversight from the state Department of Energy Resources.

Bay State Wind, which is a partnership between the Danish firm Orsted and Eversource, is the only bidder out of luck for now, although the state also plans to pursue a second procurement beginning next year.

Vineyard Wind projects that its wind farm will produce enough energy to power 450,000 homes, with much of that power delivered during the winter months when the lack of sufficient natural gas supply this past winter forced grid operators to fire up fossil fuel burning plants to meet demand.

The 800 megawatts proposed represents about 6 percent of the state's total annual electricity load.

The company also estimates that it will create 3,600 local full-time equivalent jobs over the life of the project, generate $3.7 billion in energy cost savings and eliminate the equivalent of the carbon emissions produced by 325,000 cars.

Baker administration officials highlighted Vineyard Wind's commitment to locating an operation and maintenance facility on the Vineyard with $15 million in funding for local workforce training, and said the company had also given a strong commitment to addressing the concerns of the fishing industry.

Officials did say that some consideration was given to spreading contracts across the three developers, but ultimately, after working with Rhode Island, Massachusetts chose to pursue the single project.

The 2016 renewable energy law authorized Massachusetts utilities to contract for 1,600 megawatts of offshore renewable energy, and officials said they expect to issue a second solicitation by next June in order to secure a second contract within two years.

After years of battling over Cape Wind, which was proposed to be built in Nantucket Sound and was once thought likely to be the country's first offshore wind farm, environmental groups celebrated the selection Wednesday.

"This announcement is terrific news, but we must think of it as only the beginning," said Emily Norton, state chapter director for the Sierra Club. "With the cost of offshore wind falling precipitously, we can transition much more quickly to 100 percent clean energy than anyone thought possible - and there is no time to lose. We encourage the Baker Administration to move expeditiously on the next offshore wind procurement to get Massachusetts to the legislated 1,600 megawatts, and urge our state legislature to mandate additional procurements."

Gov. Charlie Baker touted the announcement as the largest single procurement of offshore wind power by any state in the country and said it would position Massachusetts to become a hub for the offshore wind industry.

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, who met with Baker in Washington on Wednesday along with other members of the state's all-Democrat Congressional delegation, said he looked forward to working with Baker on clean energy solutions to climate change.

"Massachusetts must lead the nation on offshore wind, and this first contract of its kind to harness the winds off our coast is an important milestone. Rather than drilling for oil and gas off of the New England coast, we will find our energy future blowing in the wind," Markey said in a statement.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell also celebrated the step as one that could help the economy of his port city, where the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center manages a terminal facility designed to support the construction, assembly, and deployment of offshore wind projects.

"With the selection of New Bedford-based Vineyard Wind as the developer of Massachusetts' first industrial-scale offshore wind farm, we are witnessing the arrival of a 21st-century energy industry in the United States that holds great promise for both the environment and our port economy," Mitchell said.

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